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Best Zip Code for Perfect Life

Two recent threads have inspired me. One was on persuading the wife for an audio shopping "romantic weekend" and the other on all of your hobbies outside of audio. Given that many of you seem interested in contemplative and creative things, fishing bicycling etc as well as quite a few car nuts, here is the ultimate question: Where can I chuck in the big city rat race and move that would offer: natural beauty, pre war architecture (at least some) and privacy where one could fish, cycle, enjoy nature etc and not worry about neighbors when playing MFSL Dark Side of the Moon at concert levels through subwoofers, drive 30-60 minutes maximum to check out some girls, visit a good audio dealer, book shop, music store and eat some decent Italian food, without spending a zillion bucks on real estate or living in an overpopulated or pre fab "McMansion" atmosphere. Extra Credit: roads ideally would be somewhat rural, bucolic, winding and not ruined by traffic or constant speed traps.(One for the car geeks, of which I am one.)Let's keep this gem to our forum, but WE can all move there and start an audio club and the best dealers will follow. Thanks for the tip and I will hope to see you in the village market and have you over for a drink and a demo!
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cwlondon
1,210 posts
 
CFB, not to follow you off subject but I think you are absolutely right -- NYC, for all of its culture and world class bluster and bravado is a very money and career obsessed, American city. It is international from the perspective of its working class immigrant population, but ultimately much less cosmopolitan than London or other cities I have visited. (New Yorkers typically don't understand this and are very offended by the idea, but it is true. ) The food in London has improved immensely since '94 - perhaps you are thinking of Zafferano's in Knightsbridge? I hope you were traveling on expense account! For a "cheap and cheerful" not amazing but authentic and fun Italian for slumming it a bit, you should try Spago on Glendower Place in South Kensington. Run by a bunch of crazy Italians (food may not be their only "business", I think the best deal in town for a raw chianti and a brick oven pizza or some linguini vongole. I ate there from 2-6 nights a week for 7 years so I am reasonably familiar with the menu. Please feel free to write to me directly if you would like to discuss London.
khrys
446 posts
 
London the center of the social and cultural universe? Ever had Mexican food there? Sorry, Mechsiquan Phoode. Shaken. Not stirred. Cheers to the palate of the Stiff Upper Lip. Where's the best place to get English food in London?
khrys
446 posts
 
You know, I'm just dying to go to London for the linguine vongole. Do you think the difference between Knightsbridge, Chelsea and South Kensington is worth the tube ride? Maybe a ticket to Florence is worth considering? Execpt for the phoode.
khrys
446 posts
 
This just in: the best English food in Paris is in the septieme arrondisment. Place called "Smythe's". Run by some crazy wankers from Pakistan, India or maybe British East Africa. Somewhere from the empire for sure. Extremely authentic. Sun setting and all... CW I don't live in NYC but I find your anglocentric eurotrash perspective to be seriously parochial. How cosmopolitan do you really think London is beyond its "working class immigrant population": you know, the ones who run Spago on Glendower Place. Where you ate 2-6 nights a week for 7 years.Oblivious.
cwlondon
1,210 posts
 
Dear Khrys: I have eaten at Smythes near the shomps e lee zay many times. And I love their French champagne!! But, for authentic English food, the curried Conch salad at Churchill's in Barbados is definitely the best. ...I can also trash London with the best of 'em, and I appreciate your point (and wit). But your use of the word "Eurotrash" is at least as parochial as anything I said. Eating regularly at my favourite dumpy neighborhood Italian was not the cosmopolitan experience that distinguished London from NYC. For an ordinary middle class Joe like myself, I simply found working and socializing in London to be a much more international, multi cultural experience than living and working in New York. And I say that as a someone who is proud to be a "New Yorker." Perhaps the geographic proximity of other countries has something to do with it? But let's get back to the perfect zip code question -- maybe Tuscany?? "Crazy" Italians as friends and neighbors, real estate very cheap, great food, some quirky and high end audio manufacturers and winding Tuscan roads for the Ducati or Ferrari.
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